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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

minnie driver claiming she was ''sick of being super famous''

677 replies

Balgoresboy · 13/08/2021 00:05

I saw this in a headline article today online. Eh when I think of ''super famous'' I think Brad Pitt, Jenifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, J-Lo... generally people the majority of people would be familiar with and recognise their face/be a household name.

AIBU to think this b list actress is or never was ''super famous''? I struggle to think of projects she was in and I wouldn't even recognise her if I saw her on the street or on a picture. I am 35 btw too incase any1 thinks I'm too young so remember the 90s well.

OP posts:
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AbsolutelyPatsy · 13/08/2021 06:11

although i thought she was in a film i saw recently, but it turned out to be Julie Graham

Earlydancing · 13/08/2021 06:13

@lifehappened

How strange when you all know who she is that implies she's pretty famous
I know who Gemma Collins is. But I don't think she's a super famous A lister - even if she does! 😂😂
Youarestillintherunning · 13/08/2021 06:13

I honestly didn't even realise you had said her name. I thought that your spelling was a bit off and you were saying "a mini driver", as in someone who drives a mini. I thought you had forgot to post the news article you were referring to until I read the comments 😂 never heard of her

AnyOldPrion · 13/08/2021 06:19

@Balgoresboy

But when I think of ''well known for a short time in the 90s'' I think Mena Suvari or Neve Campbell who were everywhere for a stint before vanishing, but not Minnie Driver.
It’s all relative. I know who Minnie Driver is from that period. She has also been on mainstream UK chat shows, such as Graham Norton and was Oscar nominated. In contrast, I have never heard of the two women you mention.
OaxacaChihuahua · 13/08/2021 06:20

She was definitely really famous for a while, she had a very well known hay day.

Blueuggboots · 13/08/2021 06:20

@Xmasbaby11, that was Janeanne Garofalo in the truth about cars and dogs.....

www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/minnie-driver-on-matt-damons-comments-let-women-do-the-speaking-up-right-now-129643/

domesticgoddess3 · 13/08/2021 06:22

I’ve heard of her but I don’t think I’d recognise her if she walked past me in the street. I also couldn’t name one film she’s been in. She’s definitely not someone who I’d describe as super famous like Madonna, Britney, Michael Jackson etc.

LincolnshireYellowBelly · 13/08/2021 06:23

I remember Minnie Driver, and at the time - early to mid 90s she was in quite a lot of things. Good Will Hunting, Circle of Friends, Sleepers and Will and Grace.
She may not have been as big as other celebs, but she would have been big enough to have been dragged through the ‘circle of shame’ pages of Heat Magazine and similar for Now 🙄, so I get why she’d have been fed up of fame.

SimonJT · 13/08/2021 06:25

Bit odd to pretend Minnie Driver isn’t famous.

Whinginadeville · 13/08/2021 06:28

Minnie Driver WAS super famous in the early nineties.

LeonardLikesThisPost · 13/08/2021 06:29

@Balgoresboy

''What did happen to Neve Campbell and Mena Suvari? Or did they just dare to get older?''

Na their age didn't have anything to do with it, their careers declined sharply in their 20s, for Suvari hers just bizarrely never took off as people had anticipated.

So for Campbell she had the successful Scream franchise which kept her relevant and in demand during its 4 year run (Scream 4 flopped) but apart from that her other films didn't sell well so after Scream 3 her career floundered.

With Suvari, she had American Beauty and American Pie in 99 and I think people anticipated her to become huge but her career quickly went into decline also which I ever understood. Especially as American Beauty was 1 of the biggest films of the year and her part was big in it.

Yes she had the rest of the American Pies in the 2000s but she was support and that was really all she was famous for.

Yeah, you just never know sometimes why people slip out of the spotlight. Thora Birch's career (Ghost World, also American Beauty) dropped off apparently as she had a difficult, demanding father who managed to put off producers and casting people.

Mira Sorvino's career was ended (allegedly) by Harvey Weinstein. When I read that I remembered how she was a talked-about emerging actress for a while and then vanished, and wondered who else that happened to because of HW or others like him.

Anyway, I remember Minnie Driver being pretty famous after Good Will Hunting. I was probably more aware of her than most, as a huge John Cusack fan in the 90s and early 00s.

Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo · 13/08/2021 06:37

This is one of the oddest threads I’ve read. You are majorly over invested in ‘proving’ MD to not be what she said and I cannot work out why you’re so bothered?

Etinox · 13/08/2021 06:42

@HarebrightCedarmoon

She's also quite distinctive looking and her name is pretty memorable also.
Exactly! Mena Suvari or Neve Campbell could go incognito very easily. Her less so.
PomRuns · 13/08/2021 06:47

I remember her quite well. Maybe my age 🤣

Twinkie01 · 13/08/2021 06:47

She can't be that famous because the first thing I thought was that you'd pranged a Mini and the driver said she was super famous!!

Persephonegoddess · 13/08/2021 06:47

Basically OP you are too young to have registered her famous stint.... why are you keeping going when a lot of people are older and remember her quite well?

MichelleScarn · 13/08/2021 06:47

@Balgoresboy

''OP your protests about 12 year old you are kind of sweet. We all thought we were so grown up at that age, didn't we?''

no but I was always into films and entertainment. By 12 I had about 140 vcrs, I'd seen every movie- you name it. It was my interest and passion and still is.

140 vcr? Is a vcr not the machine, I always thought vhs was the tape, or are you not uk based op, which may be reason for your frankly bizarre diatribe against MD stating she's not well known as she definitely is here!
MontysMinions · 13/08/2021 06:48

This thread is so weird. OP, what do you have against Minnie Driver?

You seem to argue that no one can tell you your experience of being 12 and what you remember, how you watched films and yet you seem to be arguing with those who do think Minnie Driver was very famous. They are both subjective, you can't disagree with one and not the other

FWIW I am also older than you and remember her being EVERYWHERE in the 90s. Magazines, talk shows. Didn't she also date Chris O'Connell as well as Matt Damon? Her name was as everywhere as the two other actresses mentioned above.

I even remember trying to relocate her curls.

MontysMinions · 13/08/2021 06:50

Whoops Chris O'Donnell not O'Connell!

Which actually maybe strengthens my point! He was in way more films than Minnie Driver and yet I consider her more famous!! 😂

CallMeNutribullet · 13/08/2021 06:51

To me she was more high profile than Neve Campbell who was a terrible actress. Minnie Driver was excellent in Good Will Hunting - she was Oscar nominated.

Pottedpalm · 13/08/2021 06:52

So are people only famous on your say-so? I have heard of Minnie Driver. I haven’t heard of many of the other actors mentioned. It’s all relative. She was clearly famous enough for it to become a burden. I think you are being a bit catty.

Macncheeseballs · 13/08/2021 06:53

Who's he?

anon12345678901 · 13/08/2021 06:53

@Balgoresboy

''So you really don't like Minnie Driver, OP. Got it.''

I don't like or dislike her, because I don't know her really. I heard her name and can vaguely remember her in Sleepers. That was my point. I am very much into my celebrities as well and always have being.

Into your celebrities?! You don't know every celebrity, also it would depend on your age, and where you're based as to who you view as a big celebrity. In America she maybe more known as she's been in a sitcom there.. she also has a podcast currently. I know who she is, I'd recognise her. It's all subjective.
Macncheeseballs · 13/08/2021 06:53

*Chris o donnel?

lineeyesneeded · 13/08/2021 06:57

She was a pretty famous actress but has dropped out of sight a bit now, presumable because she got sick of it?
She was in a sitcom called "speechless" very recently, which I loved. I really like her actually but she's not current I suppose which is maybe why some people don't know who she is.